Ha ha…that’s the first joke I remember hearing (and remembering) in my life. My mom told me this when I was pretty young. Aha! It’s her fault that I like puns! (sorry sweet husband, I was practically *born* liking puns…you have to love that about me because you, um…don’t get a choice 🙂 <3)

My mom also taught me to read when I was 4 years old. Yay! I think my earliest memories involve watching my mom read. That’s why I wanted to do it myself from my earliest memories. Her tactic worked. I believed that reading was so cool! In my kindergarten class I was the only one who could read, and then later on in elementary school I got myself into the “gold” reading group because I read “above grade level.” I was one of those geeks who loved the old “SRA cards” because I could fly through them at my own pace. And then there was that machine that was something like a filmstrip projector which showed one word at a time and scrolled across a sentence. It kept speeding up until it was showing phrases or short sentences at a time as it scrolled across. The idea was to work up to as fast as you could go and still maintain comprehension, which was measured by short quizzes after reading each sample. All these reading exercises I remember from maybe 3rd or 4th grade. I think maybe even earlier than that, but I loved these. I was terrible at math but reading was and is definitely my thing.

I love crosswords and other word games, jokes which depend on wordplay, origins of words, words in other languages (particularly French 😉 ), grammar, etc…

Yes, I was a kid who sometimes got in trouble for reading when I should be doing something else (like chores). Oh wait. I still get in “trouble” for that. Guess I’ve just been caught “red-handed.” 🙂

*This week’s prompt will be slightly more of a challenge, should you choose to accept. Your prompt is to include the word read (present tense), read (past tense) or red. The extra challenge? Publish without reading. Just do your best while you write, then make a really squinty face and pluck up the courage to hit that button. If you’re brave enough to do it, make sure you tell us you’re going to at the end of your post.

Thanks for the extra challenge and the extra riddle! The only thing I can think of is…my car driving thru Wyoming in the summer…the flies being smashed all over the windshield… After that…je donne ma langue au chat !

One of my memories of clashes with Mom was her insistence that my sister and I clean the house on Saturday morning when all I wanted to do was read. I begged to read first and clean later, but she was so rigid it took all the fun out of that day’s reading anticipation. Of course I understand it from her point of view years later, but it still rankles. I relish being able to postpone virtually everything now for reading 🙂